We all played with cardboards when we were kids, but surely not like
Ana Serrano! The Los Angeles artist has re-created the City of Angels
in (almost) life-sized cardboards in her exhibition "Salon of Beauty,"
as commissioned by Rice University
Art Gallery.

While her pieces are not exact replicas of specific buildings,
Serrano's work both celebrates and memorializes these seemingly inconsequential
decisions by homeowners and businessowners to say, paint the bars outside
their windows hot pink, or build a wall using stacked concrete blocks.
Just as Serrano gathered her inspiration by driving through South Los
Angeles and photographing her favorite details, she hopes that highlighting
these quirky details will allow anyone to see the simple, handcrafted
beauty in their own urban environment. "I do hope that people notice
these details in a different light than what they are usually perceived
as," she says. "But ultimately it's up to the viewer to decide
what the impact of the work is going to be for them."